By the way, I THINK that is a bubble nest under the lily pad. Which is neat since he never made one before, I woke up this morning an noticed it, though I think he's been building it for days.
If your tank is cycled and your filter off for over a certain amount of time, it will kill the bacteria and when you turn it back on again, the dead beacteria will cause an ammonia spike.
Flakes aren't very good for them and it can cause bloating, so he may indeed have an issue with his swim bladder, especially if he is overfed. Plain, unscented epsom at 1 teaspoon per gallon will help if his swimming issue is indeed caused by swim bladder disease, which really isn't a disease at all. It's almost always caused by over eating but can also be a birth defect. My sister had an albino goldfish that swam upside down and backwards its whole life.
Ohhh - if he is having issues reaching the surface, loweing the water will help as will having something to rest on - to kinda hold them inplace so they dont go floating off. constantly trying to stay still tends to wear them out. and dont feed him for a day or two. It wont hurt him to not eat - they can go weeks without food.
I would try feeding him less along with dechlorinator to new water. Bettas will just keep eating until their stomachs are really really beyond full. Their stomachs are only the size of their eyeball which, as you can imagine, is pretty small. I would fast him, meaning don't give him food for a day ow two. That way he can digest his food and that could be his problem.
Lowering the water level maybe a little difficult with your heater so if he is having a lot of trouble swimming to the surface, if you still have his little petstore cup, you can float him in the tank and switch out his cup water when it gets dirty or every 6 hours or so..
If your tank is cycled and your filter off for over a certain amount of time, it will kill the bacteria and when you turn it back on again, the dead beacteria will cause an ammonia spike.
Flakes aren't very good for them and it can cause bloating, so he may indeed have an issue with his swim bladder, especially if he is overfed. Plain, unscented epsom at 1 teaspoon per gallon will help if his swimming issue is indeed caused by swim bladder disease, which really isn't a disease at all. It's almost always caused by over eating but can also be a birth defect. My sister had an albino goldfish that swam upside down and backwards its whole life.
Ohhh - if he is having issues reaching the surface, loweing the water will help as will having something to rest on - to kinda hold them inplace so they dont go floating off. constantly trying to stay still tends to wear them out. and dont feed him for a day or two. It wont hurt him to not eat - they can go weeks without food.
Thank you. I will not feed him for a couple days, if he lives that long. His problem isn't getting to the water level because he can't swim to the bottom. I will lower it somewhat however. But the filter will wear him out much much faster, it is a gamble, but I am keeping it off. He was struggling so bad that he couldn't get to the side of the tank that has the filter when it was on.
I will get epsom salts in the morning. I will be sure not to give too much, but can it hurt him if it's not necessary?
The good news is, SBD is not fatal. It just makes them look pathetic till they workout whatever is in ther system that is messing with their swim bladder - which is usually excess food. I think what happens is they eat too much and the stomach expands to the point where it squished the swim bladder?
No. epsom won't hurt him. It's pretty gentle and works as a laxative, just as it does for humans (or so the package will say. I never had a desire to test that theory LOL). It can be used long term as well. Aquarium salt, however, is harder on their internal organs and should not be used for more then 2 weeks.
and water conditioner. you should really use that too. It does not matter what kind or brand, any will do. The most popular seem to be Seachem's Prime and API's Stress Coat. But like I said, dosen't really matter what brand it is - they should all take care of chlorine and heavy metals inthe tap. Some also remove ammonia/nitrite and nitrAte.
If the filter was bothering him, then turningit off was a good move. I don't bother with filters in tanks under 10 gallons anyways. Not enough outlets and doing the water changes is pretty easy with a gravel siphon.
Betrays will eat even if they are not hungry, it's sort of a survival instinct. Exactly how many flakes are you giving him?
It's not exact, its a pinch of food. Hopefully I just gave him too much and it will work itself out in a day or two, lesson learned. I guess we'll know when I wake up tomorrow. I figure if he's still alive then, it's overeating.
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